Zona/Vegas Vacation Randoms:
--Spent the first couple of days driving down to Tombstone and back to Vegas. Tombstone is a pretty cool half-day excursion for the history buff/Tombstone movie fan. Bird Cage Theater, Boot Hill Cemetery, O.K. Corral, all were must sees/dos for me. Dirty Chinese brother token souvenirs? I'm your Huckleberry.
-- Saguaro N.P. and Sedona on the way back. Beautiful stunning scenery. Wife got literally attacked by a jumping cholla cactus. Apparently if you get too close to one a piece of it breaks off and flies at you. She got 2 of those f^^kers in her left arm. Took a good half hour to get them and their prickles out of her arm and shirt. Sedona was just a drive-thru for us, so I hated to miss meeting PTI there. The Chapel of the Holy Cross is something to behold there.
-- Gambol. Stayed at Bally's. Place is dated, but the room was refurbed and nice. Not exactly the Strip view as advertised, but everything else in the room was nice. Won more than I lost thanks to a last-night 3-of-a-kind at 3 Card Poker plus the dealer progressive cards having that 4th 7 for quads. Just under $2,300 on that hand. Hit a nice payout on a slot at Cosmo. At the MGM Sport Book hit the Cayts at -9.5 and 2nd Half -7.5 but lost the O/U and 1st Half O/U on that last-second floater. The Cromwell Sport Book had a super nice, intimate set up for the Super Bowl for $190/ticket with 3 drink tickets included. Had the Bengals to cover and the under. Lost on the Bengals money line and all my prop bets. Had Aaron Donald for MVP bet, so bummed it ultimately went to Kupp. Best tables odds and lower limits are definitely downtown, although the Trop had some $10 3 Card Poker action. Played the mechanical Sigma Derby horsy game at the D for a good 2 hours and lost about $60 in quarters.
-- Food. Wicked Spoon was good, not great. The Steak House at Circus Circus was excellent and better than anything I've ever had at Tony's or Ruby's. We shared the porterhouse and the Japanese Wagyu. Hard to fathom based on the otherwise dump that is CC. Found a nice little late evening gem at Sahara called the Noodle Den. Best meal for the money we had by far. Hong Kong BBQ Pork and Szechuan Cucumber appetizers followed by Black Pepper beef fried rice and Kung Pao chicken with pulled noodles. Evel Pie downtown as mentioned before is an excellent slice.
-- Vibe. Mask mandate was literally lifted the day we arrived in Vegas. Weed smell everywhere you go, so my wife now knows what it smells like for sure. People everywhere and just happy to not have to wear a mask indoors. Saw one dude get rolled at El Cortez, saw another dude get kicked out for passing out stoned at MGM Sports book. One drunk chick got escorted out at the D for trying to climb a table and dance with one of their Casino dancers.
-- Shows/Attractions. Criss Angel Mindfreak was really good. Purple Reign Prince Tribute Band at the Trop was cool. Hung out with the guy who plays (fake) Prince on stage afterwards and showed him an old Polaroid of him and my wife from 20 years ago at the Holiday Inn Boardwalk. Met the mother of (real)Prince's first wife Mayte Garcia after the show, too.
-- I f'n hate losing to UT. Hope it's just a fluke loss the way we've been playing as of late. That said, Keion and Kellen can't disappear when the other team matches or exceeds our competitiveness. Those guys getting outworked and becoming tentative cannot happen if we're going to be a legit title team.
-- Scared money don't make money. Fin.
